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Wednesday, February 4, 2015

On notable things like opinions

(1) If there is one thing I strongly support, it's the right to have an opinion. We also refer to this phenomenon as the right to freedom of expression. And while it's great that I am from a country that grants me this right, I must also remember that I'm not the only person inhabiting this nation, and therefore, can't cover my ears and go "LALALALALALALALALA I DON'T HEAR YOU" every time someone else has something different, and dare I say, opposing, to say to me.

(2) Without opposition, how on earth is one to thrive? We cannot expect everything we say or do to be applauded and aggressively promoted for how amazing it is. I mean, there are humans who intensely dislike Rajnikanth. This is a true fact. So, trying to make a point about opposition being a deterrent to your freedom of expression is ridiculous. The opposition is also exercising it's right to express itself.

(3) The reason I'm listing out all of this is because of the responses to the All India Bakchod Knockout / Celebrity Roast of Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor.

(4) To be honest with you, I was one of the people who didn't like the whole thing. I didn't think it was funny and when these so-called intelligent comedians thought it was okay to reference 9/11 and assume that people would find it funny in the spirit of irony and sarcasm, I wondered about the freedom of expression.

(5) I have immense respect for people who are able to make other people laugh. It's a talent I lack. But as audience, I believe I reserve the right to decide if I find something funny or not.

(6) I'd like to question their impassioned defence of their act and of why they took down the content. I agree with mostly everything they're saying except for one niggling fact. Let me try and put this across without being too circuitous -- if a filmmaker, of whatever calibre, were to make and release a film are we to applaud his freedom to create and publish content or are we to have an opinion about the movie? They're saying that an audience, however diverse, has no right to question any and all content that they're exposed to. I am, as an audience, to STFU and not have an opinion about them because they're exercising their right to freedom of expression? What about my freedom of expression then? Is it to be sidelined as 'haterz gonna hate' because you can't stomach the fact that despite your consenting adult roasters, roastees and audience, and 8M YouTube views, there are a few people who find this unfunny? Also, a list of people who didn't like your show also include those who aren't the moral watchmen, they also include intelligent humans who can and will discern good from bad/horrible/shitty. And just because 8M is more than a few it doesn't mean that the people who dislike what you did are irrelevant. I'm bringing the numbers up because they took great care to mention the proportion of likes to dislikes. It bothers me that people who are trying to bring something interesting to audiences don't want to listen to any opinion that differs from "OMG I FUCKING LOVE THIS!"

(7) As for our dearly beloved culture vultures. You seriously need to get a life. I'm fucking sick of your "everything we don't approve of is against Indian culture and violates the moral code" tripe. It makes my head spin and makes me want to puke on your damn faces. Mostly, it makes me want to burn you and your unintelligent acolytes to the ground so that we don't have to deal with your shit.

(8) Dear AIB, you guys are funny and I like what you do, but your Knockout I didn't like. I didn't think it was funny. I thought you pandered, and I know that pandering goes against everything you represent, so as a fan, I'm sad that you had to pander, but I hope the next time you do something like this, you don't have to pander and can crack the jokes you want to without having the man approve and okay it.

(9) I want to go back to opinion-having. It's an important part of being an active participant in society. Sometimes, it's okay to have opinions that cover a spectrum of likes, dislikes and interests, but just because you like something, it doesn't mean you remain loyal and faithful and ignore it when it turns momentarily unlikeable. To everyone eye-rolling at this, please stop and think before you go trolly on me. Although I have a sneaky feeling that you guys are the people who throw temple mural pictures at the moral police. I used the temple mural trope when I was in school, just fyi, and I finished school in 2001. So, even by my standards it's an old trope, get over it and find something truly scathing to say to our dearly beloved culture vultures. They're a blight to the well-being of our social and democratic fabric and like I said, if there's no alternative, we should set them on fire!